Tokyo's Shibuya Ward has ordered the recall of a diet food product imported from China after it was found to contain excessive levels of a sweetener that can cause diarrhea, metropolitan government officials said.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that "Ho-o Keishinso," also known as Diet Coconut Milk, contains 28.6 grams of the sweetener D-sorbitol in every 260-gram can. This exceeds the accepted standard of 20 grams of D-sorbitol in medicines to prevent constipation.
Complaints from consumers who suffered from diarrhea after using the product, imported by Tokyo-based firm Ho-o Seiyaku, have come from Hokkaido, Nagano, Shizuoka and Nagasaki prefectures, as well as from Nagoya and Kobe, metropolitan government officials said.
Chinese dietary products caused widespread problems in Japan last summer.